Greek Orthodox Archbishop Stylianos says church not immune to child sex abuse after Victoria, Australia, inquiry

Archbishop Stylianos has said the Greek Orthodox Church is not immune to child sex abuse, a week after the Church appeared before the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into the issue and denied culpability. He told Neos Kosmos that no religious organisation can be regarded in advance as immune to such criminal acts, and that abuse is a human problem rather than an organisational one, since religious institutions “consist of human beings, even as clergymen.”

At the inquiry, Bishop Iakovos of Miletoupolis denied that there had been any cases of child sex abuse by Greek Orthodox clergy in Victoria. He also said there had been no attempt to cover up serious matters. He told the inquiry he was “officially not aware of any child sexual abuse cases in living memory.”

The Age later reported that the Bishop had misled the inquiry, saying there was at least one case in which a priest had been charged with indecently assaulting a minor. The paper said a letter it received described a 2002 case in which a priest was found guilty of indecently assaulting a teenage girl. The letter stated that the case was “well known among the hierarchy of the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia, and information about it is even available online.” Bishop Iakovos told The Age that the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese had not deliberately misled any inquiry, and said it had made a submission identifying one case on the public record.

During the inquiry, Bishop Iakovos said the Church had a strong relationship with Victoria Police and would report any crimes directly, but he did not explain the Church’s protocols in detail. Asked about them, Archbishop Stylianos said the Church had its own procedures for receiving, investigating and resolving complaints, and had not introduced any new rules for abuse cases. He described the process: the local bishop convenes the Code of Conduct Council and investigates a complaint; the respondent is notified; and the complainant is offered counselling or support services. If mutual resolution fails, the matter goes to the Archbishop, who may refer it to a canonical court for final determination. If criminal conduct is established, the Church must refer the matter to police, and the Archbishop then takes disciplinary action according to the severity of the complaint.

The Archbishop also said that only two priests in Victoria had been defrocked, and that neither case involved abuse. One was defrocked for taking marriage licence fees. He said the Church had not been left with a damaged reputation by the inquiry. “There is no reason for the Church to feel that its reputation has, in any way, been tarnished by the parliamentary inquiry,” he said, adding that the Church welcomed the inquiry and would support and cooperate with it. He called for a national best practice standards framework “to mitigate such terrible acts for the future not only in religious institutions but others as well.”

The inquiry also heard criticism of the Catholic Church’s handling of clergy sex abuse. Experts made claims that one in 15 Melbourne priests is a child abuser, that Catholic priests offend at six times the rate of all other churches combined, and that Church protocols were designed to protect the institution rather than help victims. Police have said the Catholic Church dissuaded victims from reporting to police, alerted suspects about allegations, moved or protected suspects, and never reported a single case to police. Archbishop Stylianos recently argued that the Catholic Church’s sex scandals could be avoided if priests were permitted to marry.

Source: Read the original report